top of page

Why Place of Services codes are used in healthcare?

To keep things similar is very important. If everyone follows the same standards, it is very easy to track the activities. For this purpose, HIPAA developed two-digit codes for all healthcare professionals known as the place of services codes. They are maintained and regulated by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The center ensures that everyone from the healthcare industry follows these services codes.

 

HIPA requires all services related to healthcare to follow these standards. Often you will see these terms in the billing. They show the setting in which the service was provided by healthcare. Instead of everyone using its standards, these are the general standards followed throughout the country.

 

There are many places of service codes in place. Whenever there is any professional claim. These codes help to find the sector in which a specific service was performed. Let us learn about some of the common place of service codes in use.

 

Code number 01 is assigned to the pharmacy. Every place that has a link with the drugs or other related items come under the heading of pharmacy. When you see the code “01”, you will know that it is related to pharmacy. Similarly, code number 02 is assigned to telehealth. For places where education is provided as a primary function, code number 03 is used. Thus, just by seeing the code 03, one understands that there is some school involved in it. Places, where temporary housing is provided to people that are homeless, are assigned the code 04. And the list goes on with a separate code for every entity.

 

It helps in a lot of ways. If you see code number 12 and 14, both of them refers to a home. However, number 14 is a shared one. If there were no standards, we had no clue if the home is used by a single-family or there are shared living areas there. But now with these codes in place, we easily know it just by the code. Even it is easy to identify mobile units through this coding system.

 

Till now, there is around 99 place of services codes in total. They ensure that everyone receives the same code without considering the actual setting where the person receives the treatment. Thus, these codes play a very important part of keeping things in a standardized way.

bottom of page